August 08, 2006

Okay - enough teasing on the Whatzis from Sunday.

I just left you guys hanging yesterday, in order to give the "I only read Argghhh! from work" guys a chance at the Whatzis.

You really did pretty well. Owen got it quickly, and Captain H went a step further and emailed a link (chicken - won't post openly...) to a write up. They were the first to get it. And, speaking of that, CAPT H - upon further review, I withdraw my statement about this shell being Brit (as I was informed by the guy I bought it from) it *is* the French version of Armstrong's studded projectile.

Oh - and that *was* a shadow guys, not a notch, in the pic. That was just an artifact of taking the picture, not a deliberate attempt to mislead. This time. Owen - your size referent is... 3 inches. That's the nominal caliber. Some sources say 3.3, but that would include the studs, at least in my example.

Zinc, not a lead or copper stud - which strongly argues for it being french and not Brit.

This was an early method of rifling artillery - if you notice, the studs are slightly offset, and the studs themselves actually have a direction - the shell was fitted into deep grooves and rammed home. It worked well enough when the guns were new, and not badly fouled from firing... but it also only worked well with black powder. When more powerful propellants were used, the friction inherent in this process was too great and the studs just sheared off, and the flight of the projectile was unpredictable.

But with the acquisition of this piece, the artillery collection has representative examples of most major varieties of imparting a spin to the projectile. Now if I could only find an affordable shell with an *intact* papier maché sabot...

"Grab it before the Pentagon orders it burned..." -Vanity Fair
"...nonpartisan patriotism is the common thread tying together these reflections, love letters and stories of combat. They make for riveting reading." - The Washington Post
Winner of the 2006 Gold Medal for Anthologies - Military Writer's Society of America
"This collection is an excellent introduction to an emerging form of war reporting." - Booklist

Rude trash thrown out unread! (Yes, we're psychic) And all email sent us is presumed for publication unless you note otherwise. Not to worry, we hardly ever do that, except in the case of ranting trolls, and even then we'll give you warning.

USMC Combat Art Click the drawing to see more!

Stories From the Front

Welcome to Castle Argghhh!

This site is in no way affiliated with the Department of
Defense, Department of the Army, the Department of the
Air Force, or the National Guard Bureau and nothing said herein should be considered to have any official sanction by those (or any other)
agencies. We're just retired warriors, fellas, and
all opinions expressed herein are mine or Dusty's or Bill's (and the odd guest-poster like Cassandra and the Wicca Pundit)
unless quoted from other sources. This site does *not* have
the Rumsfeld Seal of Approval and we doubt he knows (or
cares) it exists! Though we *have* seen the Official Army Blog Training Brief, and we know that the *Counter-Intel* people know it exists... [Waving vigorously] "Hi fellas! How are ya?"

Unsolicited advertising. If you place, or cause an
agent to place, any unsolicited ads via any means, not
limited to so-called 'comment spam' or
'trackback spam' you are assumed to agree to
pay at the rate of $500USD per unsolicited URL. Contact
the site owner for remittance instructions. Attempts
will be made to collect this tariff, and a failure to
make payment will result in formal actions against the
advertising site.

Notable Quotes

"It's not difficult to understand why
somebody might pick up an AK-47 against us. Maybe we killed
his father in the first Gulf War, maybe in this Gulf War,
maybe he's just a dick.
~Sgt. Reginald Abram
Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in western Iraq.

Quoted in the Asia Times, Oct. 24"

President Bush on terrorists in Iraq:

"They can't whip our militaries. What they can
do is get on your TV screens and stand in front of your
TV cameras and cut somebody's head off, in order to
try to cause us to cringe and retreat. That's their
strongest weapon." . . .

Carrie Sez:

" Perhaps we should have another category of conservatives besides paleocons and neocons.
"Narcissocons" with the motto "We are always on our minds". If you happen to be one, you are not allowed to have or spend the older quarters because there's a MEXICAN EAGLE on the back. Oh the horror." . . .

Princess Crabby on Iraq:

" Maggie said:
"If you believed an incident such as this could change your mind then
you really weren't supporting OIF/OEF for the right reasons." " . . .

Red Ensign Bloggers - Fighting to Keep Canada Free from
the Yoke of Excessive Political Correctness!